Unstoppable (2010) - T. Scott's mechanically exciting final movie

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This poster for Tony Scott's Unstoppable is similar in its fiery style to past posters for speed-themed action movies such as Speed (1994)

 

A series of mistakes make a huge train full of dangerous chemicals and fuel race along without steering towards a string of larger cities. A veteran railroad engineer and a newly begun same pick up the challenge; to try to derail a catastrophe about to happen!

 

For the train and/or mechanically interested in general, Unstoppable has sequences that cultivates that mechanical fascination that will make the diaphragm tighten in suspense. English master filmmaker Tony Scott (The Hunger (1983)), whose 17th and last movie this is, - before his tragic 2012 suicide, - creates a fundamental excitement that works, up to a point. - Because we never really believe that things will evolve as catastrophically as projected. And because leads Chris Pine (Star Trek Beyond (2016)) and Denzel Washington's (Flight (2012)) family sup-blots continue to be distant and uninteresting.

Mark Bomback (Live Free or Die Hard (2007)) has written the script, based on a real 2001 incident in Ohio, which has its stakes raised drastically for the film. Rosario Dawson (Death Proof (2007)) is good as a train yardmaster. Unstoppable feels thick, but Scott keeps it mostly on its tracks.

 

Related reviews:
 
Tony Scott: Stoker (2013) - Chan-wook Park's over-styled American debut revolts and bores in turns (producer)  
Déjà Vu (2006) - T. Scott cuts a helluva suspense-cake!
Domino (2005) - T. Scott's bounty-hunter biopic a complete misfire, mega-flop  

Days of Thunder (1990) or, Very Little Thunder

Watch an interview with Chris Pine for the movie here

Cost: 85 - 100 mil. $

Box office: 167.8 mil. $

= Big flop

[Unstoppable premiered October 26 (Westwood, LA) and runs 98 minutes. Negotiations with Washington for the film fell through once, as Fox wanted him to accept 16 instead of 20 mil. $. Scott was also asked to cut his salary from 9 to 6 mil. $. Filming took place from August - November 2009 in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, California and New York. Production was halted for one day in November, as part of the train accidentally derailed. As with Scott's previous film, the remake The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009), - also a big flop, and a little bit more mediocre, - Unstoppable is a run-amok train action movie with Washington as an everyday type of guy hero. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Megamind, to a 22.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for a total of 5 weeks and grossed 81.5 mil. $ (48.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 12.8 mil. $ (7.6 %) and China with 9.8 mil. $ (5.8 %). The film was nominated for the Best Sound Editing Oscar, which it lost to Inception. Unstoppable is certified fresh at 87 % with a 6.9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Unstoppable?

Revenge for Jolly (2012) - An uneven, pitch-black stoner comedy debut

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A blood-splattered, shell-littered poster for Chadd Harbold's Revenge for Jolly!

Revenge for Jolly! is the feature debut of Chadd Harbold (Block (2011), short), a really dark comedy, the first feature written by lead Brian Petsos (Wasted Space: The Mark Rantana Story (2010), short).

Petsos plays a nerdy loner, whose tiny dog gets killed. He seeks revenge and partners up with his also not-too-bright cousin for this quest, which takes them on a violent killing spree.

Jolly! will mostly appeal to younger males of the more cynical kind, or emotionally blunted types, who probably don't really need to acquire role-models who do the kind of things the protagonists of this film do.
The film's humor is extremely dark, even more so because none of the action is totally unbelievable, and the effects are realistic. Many will writhe in their seats or simply switch off the film, because it is immoral, but if you can accept this in the context of it all just being one long, crude joke, then you may like the film or just find it entertaining as I must admit that I did.
Something has gone wrong in the DVD transfer, or perhaps the film was just shot on terrible HD cameras (?). In any case the result on my TV was a technically awful visual experience, as the images linger all over the screen, whenever the characters move fast in any way.
Petso's script is pretty one-sided and flawed and plays like a series of episodic, more or less comedic and grim scenes that all come to a very abrupt end. Rarely has a feature seemed more 'straight-out-of-film-school' than Revenge for Jolly!, which is totally lacking any seriousness or great ideas, apparently solely thrilled with violence, guns and profanity and really dark and nonsensical humor.

Writer-star Brian Petsos and Oscar Isaac in Chadd Harbold's Revenge for Jolly!

The details:

What may make you interested enough to watch it are the stars in it:
Petsos doesn't create an interesting lead, but Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)) is pretty good as his stoner cousin. They both seem to give it their all at least.
The funniest in the remaining cast are Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood (2004-05)) and Kevin Corrigan (The Departed (2006)), both in the wedding scene. The film also features stars Kristen Wiig, Elijah Wood (in yet another pretty obscure post-LOTR appearance) and Ryan Phillippe.
Jolly! may, in fact, be best described as mostly a stoner comedy. - The leads, who are wearing sombreros for a large portion of the film (...) have definitely smoked too much, anyway.
Incredibly, (since this film doesn't seem to have made any business), Harbold followed it up just the year after with another low-budget comedy, How to Be a Man (2013). And soon he will finish his next project, the short George and the Vacuum (2015) with Fred Armisen.

Watch the trailer here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[No information out most likely means that the film hasn't made nearly anything (theatrically, anyway). It was shot in New York and premiered at the city's Tribeca Film Festival.]

What do you think of Revenge for Jolly!?